Doing a little poking around on the net and found a few stories;
Mounties, FBI, MIT join to
catch a 16-year-old internet
hacker
Andrea MacDonald
The Daily News
An international team of cyber-sleuths has tracked down a
16-year-old computer hacker believed to be responsible for
wreaking havoc on Nova Scotia's MT&T Internet service.
Law-enforcement agencies from across North America, who
followed a trail of electronic clues, arrested a 16-year-old Montreal
student who was sitting at his computer terminal when police
arrived two days ago. A second suspect is from mainland Nova
Scotia.
The investigation involved MT&T, the RCMP's technological crime
unit in Halifax, the FBI, RCMP officers in Ottawa and Montreal,
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Hundreds of MT&T Sympatico users experienced a slowdown
earlier this month when someone dumped large amounts of
unreadable data into the system. Delays in sending and receiving
files lasted more than a week.
One of the clues used to trace the suspect was his Internet Protocol
address, a form of digital identification. An IP address is assigned to
every computer that hooks up to the Net.
Whoever caused the slowdown failed to mask their identity when
tripping through cyberspace, police say. MT&T also kept a log of
the person's electronic visits.
The suspect is believed to have infiltrated as many as 1,000
computer systems in Canada and the United States, including those
at several universities and NASA.
Police seized the 16-year-old's computer equipment. They expect
to lay charges of unauthorized use of a computer, a Criminal Code
offence.
Chris Butt, MT&T solutions manager, said he does not think his
company lost any customers, but was relieved to hear someone had
been apprehended.
"I think that the action was taken quick and swift indicates how
seriously we treat these matters. I'm glad the RCMP also treated it
seriously and undertook this investigation quickly," he said.
Many users would not have noticed a difference, he noted.
Measures are in place to handle future attacks. MT&T monitors its
customers' cyber-surfing only when something strange arises, Mr.
Butt stressed.
That it took the world's leading crime-fighting units to catch up with
a boy still in high school shows how vulnerable the system is.
George Matthews, a Dartmouth computer consultant, says
protecting one's online data is really no different from safeguarding
what's in the filing cabinet.
"You have to be aware that there's potential there for someone to
steal your information," he said. "So the onus is really on the user to
take at least some basic steps to make sure that they're not left
wide open." He recommends a security feature called a firewall,
which can cost from $600 to $12,000.
Someone should tell George about the Centurion
nationalpost.com
Threat of cyber-attack
exposed by CSIS probe
Jim Bronskill
Southam News
Canada's intelligence agency is investigating the threat posed by
cyber-warfare to electric power grids and key computer networks.
Newly released documents show the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service has launched a probe to identify terrorists and foreign
governments that could wreak havoc with the country's vital
electronic systems.
An "information operations" assault could have the same devastating
effect as the ice storm that ripped through Eastern Canada a year
ago, says a CSIS document released under the Access to
Information Act.
"Nature may have been the culprit this time," says the article by a
CSIS analyst. "But another time it could be an attack from a
computer hacker or terrorist group which knocks out the systems
controlling the distribution of electricity."
The CSIS investigation of information operations is being led by the
service's Economic Security and Proliferation Issues unit, set up
several years ago to catch economic spies and limit the spread of
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
A new breed of terrorist may have since emerged -- one who uses
the computer mouse instead of explosives to inflict serious damage
by hacking into a computer system and altering, destroying, or
stealing information.
"Due to the changing global security environment, it is something
that the service is concerned about," said Marcia Wetherup, a
CSIS spokeswoman .
"One just has to look at the huge technological advance in the last
decade. The global threat environment does evolve, and we try to
monitor that to ensure that we are fulfilling our mandate in
safeguarding Canadian national security interests."
The service's investigation of the information attack threat is
revealed in a two-part study of economic espionage by the Security
Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over CSIS. Edited
copies of the top secret documents were obtained by Southam
News.
"CSIS informed us that it was preparing to investigate the threat to
Canada's security from information operations," says the SIRC
study, completed last April.
It notes CSIS and several other federal agencies, including the
Defence Department, the RCMP, and Treasury Board, had already
formed the Interdepartmental Committee on Information
Operations to co-ordinate efforts in the area.
In April, 1997, the committee identified 20 federal organizations
that should be involved in the discussions.
"It appeared that the federal government saw information
operations as a high priority, and one that had the potential to affect
many departments and agencies," says the SIRC study.
A Senate committee report warned earlier this month that, despite
federal awareness of the threat, additional steps should be taken
immediately to assess, prevent, and respond to cyber-attacks on
Canadian government agencies and businesses.
Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, called last Friday for $2.8-billion to
combat terrorism, including establishment of "intrusion detection
monitors" to help fend off a cyber-attack.
A number of hacker organizations with political agendas, including
the Hong Kong Blondes, a group of Chinese dissidents, are said to
be based in Canada.
The Canadian military is paying close attention to computer security
as it makes sensitive networks more open to take advantage of the
Internet and other new tools, said Colonel Randy Alward of the
Canadian Forces Information Operations Group.
nationalpost.com
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